Bank Holiday Train Ridiculousness

I travelled twice over the bank holiday in the UK. People generally take the whole easter Friday to Monday off work or school as both the Friday and Monday are holiday and make for a long weekend. However this year was the year of ridiculousness. I forgot that there was going to be work going on to do with the metro lines in parts of northeast England. So I went on the Saturday from South Shields to Newcastle, which is normally a case of ride however many stops then change and ride another stop. Simple right? Not that day. I rode as far as i could then had to get the replacement bus. As the scanner on the bus apparently wasn't working, a number of people with bus passes were allowed to just walk on. I then got another metro, but got off a few stops later after hearing an announcement from the driver. I thought he said to get off, but i met some fellow passengers who said I could have stayed on that train. I finally completed my metro journey by taking the next one to go in that direction. The metro trains thankfully come every 20 minutes or perhaps 10, but I would very much appreciate knowing why work was done on a weekend when people were bound to be going here there and everywhere! I also took a train in the afternoon of Easter Monday from Newcastle to Peterborough. The thing that has always made me angry about train travel in the UK is not only the prices, but the fact that a ticket does not mean a seat. You can book a seat if you want, but in busy times you probably won't get anywhere near a sittable seat! On Monday I was almost standing for the whole journey. I say almost, because there were supposed seats in my carriage, but they were fixed slanting seats I could do little more than perch on. They reminded me of a softer version of seats one might find at a bus stop while doing nothing more than waiting, not somewhere you would sit while on a journey. This particular train was so full, that the person on my left was standing all journey, the person on my right hadn't moved from their seat on their case/bag before or after I was there, then the rest of the people were either standing or sitting on the floor. The conductor even made several announcements to say that first class was "full and standing" and people might be able to claim compensation if they had reserved a seat on the train and not been able to get to it. I spoke to a lady who lost her spot on the floor as soon as she stood up, then her little child had the choice of the floor or random person's bag. I often agree with someone whose name I'll never know as it was a radio phone-in years ago, but one thing I always remember them saying is "they shouldn't sell more train tickets than there are seats on a train, just as it is for an aeroplane or the theatre". The train not only had more passengers because another line was closed due to work, but of course people wanted or needed to travel anyway. The train I was on ended up getting delayed because so manny people were standing too close to the edge of station platforms. Oh and there was a problem with a signal near a station. The moral of the story? Don't travel on trains during a bank holiday.

Low-waste Living

I'm writing from the computer today, so will have far fewer typing errors now. I just got the laptop and the person who was going to buy it doesn't want it now as they got a new one, so looks like I'm keeping it. Anyway I thought I would write a little about what I currently do to try and produce as little waste as possible, as well as something about what I would like to do in future.

<h2>Currently</h2>

In December 2018, I bought a bamboo travel mug whose lid and grip are made of silicone. Since then I've noticed I haven't used a single takeaway/paper cup. I was at college in January and some of February 2019 and stayed in a hall of residence. I even spent less money and went back to the kitchen to make tea myself instead of buying it at the coffee shop if I had time. When going shopping, I try and reuse bags, even paper ones as much as I can. That way I don't have to keep getting plastic ones. I also got a reusable sort of fabric bag when I was in Helsinki, which I take with me for fruit and vegetables. It comfortably holds 4 big apples and 4 bananas. Of course I also finish as much of my food as I can rather than throwing it away, but who wouldn't. I have some food storage containers, but unfortunately they're of a flimsy plastic and not exactly airtight. I don't really want plastic containers at all, but that's all they had in the store I was in when it occurred to me to buy some. I know so much fruit and vegetables come in packaging (especially if it's out of season), so I try and buy loose ones whenever I can. If I can't get loose fruit and vegetables I get as big bag as I can. I do that with food in general, because I can use some of it and freeze the rest. Why things like single cucumbers are wrapped in plastic in shops I've never understood. Markets if there are any close by are great alternatives though. I only use them for dry things like looseleaf tea. When I'm making things, I put whatever leftover pieces of fabric and yarn I have into other projects. I don't use energy-saving light bulbs because I can't see them well if at all. However, when I light candles I at times use long matches, especially if I want to light 2 or 3 at once. I find I can light 3 candles with 1 long match. Got to love scented candles, although I do also have a cool lantern thing that is in the shape of a house and has multi-coloured windows. I also have an oil burner and need very little oil to get the scent.

<h3>In Future</h3>

In future, one thing I really want to do and am already trying to do is get myself a tea-strainer. That way I can use the looseleaf tea more than teabags. I'm going to be renting a place at some point before September, because I'm starting an art course at that point, so I also want to see if the area I move to has anything for composting or a specific food-waste or garden-waste etc bin I could get. I'll be still travelling as much as I can though, so I'm going to try and take fewer taxis, which will also help in saving money. Sadly this is not always possible because some places are not reachable by public transport and I might have to be places in a reasonable time-frame. Today for example, I only took a taxi to and from the metro station, then I took the metros the rest of the way to and from Newcastle. I really want to do a bit of shopping of sorts and get myself a set of bamboo cutlery and a flask or whatever it's called. The one I want to get has a double-wall so you don't get a burned or frozen hand, but it keeps things at proper temperature for quite a number of hours. I think the flask will be useful when I'm wanting to carry drinks around on a train for example, because I can just throw it in my bag and off I go, but with the mug I have right now I have to hold it upright. I want the cutlery because it's flat and light-weight, so again I can put it in my bag and take it places. Then I can eat without using the plastic cutlery. Quite what I'll do with the straw I have no idea, but all of them seem to come with some kind of bamboo or glass straw for some reason. They normally come with a pair of chopsticks as well. I forgot to mention earlier that I've been using bars of soap again now rather than the stupid big bottles of shower gel or similar. I find they seem to last longer, although that could just be me not using so much, I don't know. Either way, I've heard about bars of shampoo recently so want to see if I can find some to try out. I sometimes just use the water from the shower, but normally use shampoos with coconut oil if I can get it, because I find it helpful for my skin and hair. I want to get myself a talking scale that also has a jug and measures liquid as well as solid ingredients. I have one at the minute that measures only solid things. That way I can cook food hopefully better than I currently do. I'm not sure though, because the most accurate talking scales only measure to the gram rather than say the half or tenth of a gram like standard scales do. I find this wrong, because those who can't see too well if at all have the right to exactly the same information as their fully sighted colleagues,.

Travelling On The Cheap (Continued)

It's later than I thought, so thought I post an update. My plan of travelling on the cheap didn't go quite as I had planned.

I booked the ferry from Turku for28 GBP which was very nice, but sadly because I couldn't remember how to get to the bus stop I ended up getting a taxi to the ferry terminal, which cost of course more than I would have liked than the ferry itself. On the ferry I got some food, which wasn't too bad in price, as well as a  couple o f drinks (tea or pepsi orr something of the sort). Oh now I remember, the food was a fallafal wrap with pitta bread and some sweet potato fries. Sadly and rather annoyingly the ferry had absolutely nothing in braille in terms of signage, not even anything tactile at all actually. So I was wondering around waiting for random people to show up. The people working on the Viking Line ship for the most part were very helpful, but I still thought to mention it to everyone from the people in the restaurants to the cleaner to the guard, or whatever you call those people who go round and make sure everything is fine on board the ship. The only thing apart from not being able to navigate the boat myself even if Ihadd wanted to, was the fact that the staff member who showed me off the boat and out of the terminal at Stockholm decided to tell me that I should tell them in advance or bring someone with me next time. Um no. I have just as much right to ask for asistance as anyone else who doesn't know where to go thank you very much.

So I arive in Stockholm Sweden and meet the bus driver who will take those who want to the city terminal where the buses and trains are. I ask the very helpfuul driver how much the ticket is and surprisingly, he tells me the price not only in chrona, but also in euros and informs me that he takes card payments. Fantastic! I got to the city terminal and sat talking to a lady who got there with me. She was waiting for her daughter and I for the flixbus I had previously booked to go to Malmo then to Berlin. We separated when that lady's daughter arrived and some people were also hanging around waiting for the same bus as me, so we boarded together. I might addd here that the buses were the cheapest part of the journey. I really wanted to go an a direct flixbus from Stockholm to Berlin, but that was full so I had to take a couple of separrate buses. The driver of the bus from Stockholm spoke German and little to no English and my first language is English with the odd half-fogotten bit of German, but the driver was lovely. More about him in a minute. The jjourney took all night and into the morning since it was a night bus. I really wish night buses would have beds, because the seats are not exactly comfortable on flixbuses. We got to Mamo Sweden at something after 7 in the morning and I had a 3 hour or more wait in the bus station. The driver decided to wait with me as he had nothing to do until he left for his plane a couple of hours later. It was bloody cold, so we went to sit in the bus station and he bought me a cup of tea ( gave him my travel mug to not have to bother with the disposable ones) then he asks if i want something to eat. I tell him that would be nice but I didn't know what was around or something to that effect, so he sys he will buy me a sweet roll. Next thing I know, he comes back with some sort of pretty sasty local pastry thing with nuts etc on. Although we spoke little of each other's languages, we managed to get the messages across and have something of a conversation. I knew the German for the numbers when he was asking how many sugars I wanted in the tea and I know the German for "speak", so after we got that figured out we were good!  He would say whatever he was wanting to say and have google translate say the English, and I would do likewise and have google translate say the German.. As I say, this lovely bus driver whose name I can't remember stayed with me until he had to leave for his aeroplane, at which point he had the police at the bus station show me where my bus was. Sweden has so many more police than Finland. In Finland you barely notice them, but in Sweden in the bus stations you see them walking around. Anyway I noticed some lines on the ground and upon asking the police person, discovered that they were to lead blind people to the exits. If I remember right they were also present in Stockholm station.

So off I go on another bus to Berlin. I had tried to book a cheap place on air bnb because I was tired, but they only accepted if it was for 2or more people, so I bookedd a more expensive place in the centre of Berlin. This meant getting a taxi to and from the place and the bus station. I stayed in a pretty big house run by Andreas. He's lovely and I would totally stay there again. The room was big but then it was a 5 person room. I got talking to him as well as some of the other guests over the 2 days I stayed there. Andreas loves his gramaphones and there's a lovely one in the kitchen/dinin-room. It lookl something like a cupboard, but you open the lid at the top and there is the turntable for the record to go on with the needle and everything. The winder is on the sde. There are a couple of doors which are actually cupboard doors lower down, but at the top are 2 smaller doors which at first I thought were cupboard doors with oddly-shaped shelves, but it's really a speaker. From what he told me it was a total pain getting it to Germany since he bought it at an auction in England. I stayed there from Friday to Sunday mainly resting. On Sunday me and Andreas went for lunch at an Asian restaurant. I can't remember its name off the top of my head, but I had some vegetables with some tofu and rice and probably some kind of sauce. Andreas had duck. I took a taxi back to the bus terminal and on the way got into a discussion with the driver about the rather stupid taxi laws in and around Berlin. To cut a long story short, he's a Berlin driver and he can pick people up from Schonefeld Airport which is 1 km outside the city, but he can't go back and join the queue with passengers. He has to carry no passengers. The Schonefeld drivers can pick people up and take them to Schonefeld, but they have to go back to Berlin with no passengers. He also said that the uber drivers in Germany don't have to have actual taxi licences or be familiar with the area. He as a fully registered tax driver has to carry his personal licence, taxi licence and documents relating to the car, but the uber drivers only have to have their own licence and car documents. Also he had to go through an exam to make sure he knew all the popular tourist sites and how to get to them, the hotels and an other similar places as  well as having a good knowledge of the streets around the city. Apparently the book he had to read with all this information was around a thousand pages long, but again the uber drivers have to do none of that, just rely on the GPS. We all know that this is flawed, because one day the battery will go flat or the technology in the said GPS will malfunction, so while it's a good tool to have perhaps, it shouldn't be the only tool I think.

Anyway I find the staff at Berlin bus sttion amazingly helpful. Despite the fact there was only 1 person dealing with enquiries where I was, he sent for someone to help me get to the bus. Not 1 but 2 peole came and introduced themselves as being from Flixbus. There are lines at that particular bus station to indicate where people should wait for the bus at each stand. On I get to a cold and annoyingly uncomfortable bus heading towards Collone. Oh I forgot to add, on the way from Malmo to Berlin, my bus ticket included a ferry crossing at some stage to Copenhagen. I payed 22 euros on the ferry and got 2 plates of salad and pasta stuff and 2 lots of bread as well as some tea. It was actually an all inclusive buffet, so I could probably have got more.

The journey to Collone was uncomfortable, especially as I was tryingto sleep but couldn't. The wifi on flixbus buses is irritating as well, because it never actually connected for me, or if it did it wouldn't stay. I didn't know whether I was meant to connect my phone to the network called flixbus or the one called flixbus wifi. I changed buses at Collone and got the one to London. I don't know what I think of that bit of the journey in terms of how environmentally friendly it was or otherwise. When you get done with passport control in Paris, you have to get back on the bus, which then gets on a train with a load of other vehicles to carry everyone from Paris to Folkstone England. Then the bus has to drive off the train. I had some passport issues at the French border control. To cut a long story short, they decided that the world passport was a fantasist passport. They weren't having any of it when I told them I'm a world citizen and answered their questions and presented them with the universal declaration of human rights, a copy of which I carry around. They only way they would let me through was if I presented the British passport.

Well that's my story of getting back to the UK. I got back late on Monday evening. If I had been staying closer to Turku than Rymattyla in Finland, and carrying less stuff, I would have probably been able to get a single bus either to the ferry terminal or to Turku, but from where I had been staying I would have altogether had to take 3 buses - 1 to Naatali, then 1 to Turku and finally one to the ferry terminal itself. Also I could have not stayed the couple of nights in Berlin, but then I would have probably been more worn out. Speaking of cheap travel, I find the Express coaches in the UK to be more comfortable than Flixbus. I wonder how much the ferry to France from Dover England costs these days. Maybe I should look on ferry savers. At least you can alk around and do things on the ferry and perhaps go outside or sleep if it's a longer journey.

Travelling On The Cheap

Given that I think buses trains and perhaps ferries are more environmentally friendly and cheaper than flying, I thought I ould share my journey I'm planing to the UK. I say I think these things are perhaps more environmentally friendly, because if aeroplanes have too much fuel, it's common for them to dump the remainder into the ocean so they're not too heavy. Well I'm going to be leaving Rymattyla super early in the morning tomorrow. I'm getting the 06:25 bus from here to Naatali, then the next bus to Turku. I'll then have to find a way of getting to the ferry terminal which could get interesting. Another thing I'm really hoping is that I can pay with card on the buses. I know yu can pay by card in taxis here, but then those journeys are much more expensive.

I'm going to take the ferry from Turku to Stockholm in Sweden, so just need to decide which cabin I want to book. Got to love Ferry Savers. On the page where you choose which cabin you want it has a little piece of text saying "accommodation is compulsary". I'll be arriving in Stockholm in the evening and was hoping to take a flixbus all the way to Berlin Germany. Sadly though the direct journey is full for that night, so I'm looking at either doing some sort               of transfer in Malmo (no idea where that is in relation to Stockholm), or staying a night or 2 in Stockholm itselt in order to get the direct bus. I'm not too sure how much the buses will be from here to the ferry place, but I really don't feel like paying 62 euros (can't find the euro symbol on here) for a taxi to take me there. Even if I take the most expensive flixbus journey from Stockholm to Berlin (21 or so hours), that's still less than 95 GBP and the ferry will be 50 or less. In fact thhere are some flixbus jourseys for just under 90. I really wanted to see what I could find on eurolines which I heard about recently, but so far find the website a total pain to navigate.

I know this is taking the really long way round, but that's all right with me. If I didn't have so much stuff I was carrying, I wouldn't mind staying a while in each of the places, but then that would not be so cheap as I would have to get accommodation.

After Berlin I should be able to get buses from there to Amsterdam, then from Amsterdam Netherlands to London England. I think the UK has surprisingly few flixbus stops, because it only has stops in London and Dover. Then again Finland has precisely 0 stops by the look of it. I'm also going to look at ferries from Amsterdam to Newcastle England. Actually the ferry terminal is in North Shields you silly people. I'm thinking about seeing how much eurostar and megabus are as well to compare prices. I forgot about megabus. The only reason I mention Newcastle/North Shields is because hen I can pick some stuff up I accidentally left somewhere I stayed and go and visit some people further south. There's a direct train from Newcastle to London Kings Cross and vice versa which stops at Peterborough along the way.

Before I post this, just a quick thought to ask who wants me to do a comparison of things I've noticed about differences between the UK and Finland? I know people have done similar already, so really don't want to bore everyone, but feel free to comment. :)

Visits To Finland

This is my second time visiting the northern European country of Finland. My first was in September to early October 2017, when I spent much of the time wondering between Helsinki in the south and Rovaniemi in the north. Durring one my my first times in Helsinki, I found a little Japanese restaurant which I normally like to go to. The people working and running the place speak Finnish English and Japanese, and one time I met a really interesting guy who retired from his previous job and later worked as a healer. I won't tell his whole story here, but he was one of those people that you meet once then never see again. Wonder whatever became of him ... While in Rovaniemi I met some super friendly but shy reindeers and some equally friendly huskies an a reindeer farm and husky farm. I recently found an experience listed on air bnb that Iwant to go on where you get to make things with local wood and reindeer antlers etc. I mention it in more detail on my craft blog at http://harmonyscrafts.blogspot.com/ but think it would be fun to do some time.

I like the fact that the people heredon't generally do small talk, so they mainly talk when they actually have something to say. For that reason, I don't find te silence awkward as it is the UK and probably other places. I find that people are more helpful in explaining things as well, wheras in other places, they seem to think it perfectly acceptable to grab hold of say someone with a white cane in order to apparently help. They do that a little here, but not so much by any means. Speaking of travel, I like the trains here, because you can't not reserve a seat when booking a train ticket and the conductor will look at every single person's ticket on that train. To the point of if you don't have a ticket, how do you know where to sit? So even if people are only going for a fairly short journey, no one stands up on the train unless you're say going to the dining car or something. The Finnish logic is kind of interesting too. In kitchens here there's a cupboard abone the sink where plates and cups go. The shelves of the said cupboard are racks so once you're done washing the dishes you can just put them there and they drip dry into teh sink. I thought tat was a Finnish thing, but actually someone in a youtube comment on a video said it's the Caribians who invented it, so the Finns didn't get to patent the design. Oh if you go to a hotel and have a double bed, they normally put 2 single duvets rather than a double one. Apparently that's so if one person gets hot it doesn't matter because the other person can keep their own cover.

This time I'm in the coastal town of Rymattyla in southwest Finland. I had heard of the city of Turku but never actually been there. When I looked up the place on air bnb, this little apartment was the cheapest I found. I didn't realize at the time that it was so far away from the city. I like the fact that the town is quiet and one side is the forest and the other is the ocean. Sadly the old windmil is no longer making flour, but stands empty with its sales still turning occasionally in the wind. I wonder why they just closed and abandoned it. :( I sit here now hearing it on the odd occasion and listening to the birst and the cars going past. For a coastal town though, I find it pretty environmentally unfriendly, because the only options we have for rubbish disposal here are rubbish that gets burned, biodegradable or plastic. This leaves me at a complete loss for what to do with teabags and tins etc, because teabags are lined with plastic so not biodegradable and tins don't really do anything except rust, and they're not plastic either. Then again certain plastics are not recylableeither, which is even worse for the environment. While I was in Helsinki I managed to get myself a reusable bag for fruit and vegetables and a paper shoping bag (at some point I'll either buy or make myself a cloth shopping bag or 2), but the local shop here has only plastic bags for fruit and vegetables and just about has paper bags for carrying shopping. Also the said shop has more prepared things than I even thought possible. I never knew that slicedd tomatoes in a box was a thing someone could buy until the other week! and there are no loose mushrooms or carrots, only packaged in boxes or yet more bags. This apartment where I'm staying is nice enough, butt I find it cluttered because there are loads of stools and tables and random things around. Then again the people ho own this place do tend to rent it out until they want to come and live here. The most irritating thing though is that the middle or outer bits of the windows don't open, only the inner ones so no air can get in. That's probably nice for the winter, but it's spring now and I wanted to let some air in here.

I leave here on Thursday, so will probably spend a few days in Turku itself and have a look at the ferries. I either want to go from Turku to Sweeden, then take buses from there to Berlin then Amsterdam then London, or else take the ferry to Germany and go from there to Amsterdam and London. I don't like airports at the best of times, plus I want to go the cheapest and hopefully most environmentally fiendly way possible. I know it's going to take a lot longer, but although I've heard that flying is friendlier, I don't know that it is as planes make a habit of dumping fuel in the ocean if they have too much of it. I find buses trains and boats take longer, but are actually less stressful, because there are normally fewer supposed security checks to go through if any and you can either sleep or walk around and do stuff. With a ferry you can sometimes go outside if it's daylight. Of course they shut the doors at night for safety, but then people are normally sleeping if it's a long journey anyway. I want to go back to the UK only for as long as I need to to minimize some of my stuf, then I want to come back and explore a bit more of the European countries. I say minimize because I have for example 2 of the same clothes just in different colors. Partly I bought them, but partly people give them to me. I also want to either pick up my kitchen scale or get a better one that measures liquid as well as weight, so I can make more of my own food better. Making own food is so much cheaper than eating out or ordering it.